{"id":1240265,"date":"2022-01-25T19:08:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T00:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1240265"},"modified":"2022-01-25T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T00:08:13","slug":"fact-check-did-the-guardian-publish-this-story-about-michael-spencer-funding-a-militia-in-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-the-guardian-publish-this-story-about-michael-spencer-funding-a-militia-in-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did The Guardian Publish This Story About Michael Spencer Funding A Militia In The Congo?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-did-the-guardian-publish-this-story-about-michael-spencer-funding-a-militia-in-the-congo%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1240265&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1473966292998953&amp;set=a.117230442005885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> purportedly shows an article published by The Guardian about Michael Spencer, a member of the U.K.\u2019s House of Lords, funding a Congolese militia.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The image has been digitally altered. The Guardian confirmed it did not publish such an article.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1473966292998953&amp;set=a.117230442005885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">image<\/a> shows what appears to be the front page of a print edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Guardian<\/a>, a popular British news outlet. One of the headlines on the alleged front page reads, \u201cMichael Spencer Accused of funding Congo militia,\u201d and features a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/business\/news\/icap-swoops-on-tullett-prebon-in-huge-broking-merger-a6723731.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">picture<\/a> of Spencer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLATE NEWS\u2026\u201d claims the image\u2019s caption. \u201cBritish criminal Michael Spencer is in Kenya and negotiating a deal with Kenya [Deputy President] William Ruto to finance his 2022 Presidential bid.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2020\/06\/18\/fact-check-guardian-article-bbc-remove-george-orwell-statue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Viral Image Claims To Show Guardian Article About The BBC\u2019s George Orwell Statue Being Removed)<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The alleged front page and the article about Spencer are fake, however. Neither appear on The Guardian\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a> or on the company\u2019s verified <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/page\/10513336322\/search\/?q=michael%20spencer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=michael%20spencer%20(from%3Aguardian)&amp;src=typed_query\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a> pages. Check Your Fact found no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Michael+Spencer+UK+congo+militia&amp;rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS820US820&amp;biw=1536&amp;bih=722&amp;ei=VITwYcXuL96eptQP94uY2AY&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjF6Nr5g871AhVej4kEHfcFBms4ChDh1QMIDg&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=Michael+Spencer+UK+congo+militia&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsAM6BAgAEA1KBAhBGABKBAhGGABQoQVYlQhg4QloAXACeACAAa4BiAHZA5IBAzAuM5gBAKABAcgBA8ABAQ&amp;sclient=gws-wiz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credible news reporting<\/a> about Spencer funding a Congolese militia.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to Check Your Fact, The Guardian confirmed \u201cThe screenshot shared is not a published Guardian headline or image.\u201d The outlet directed Check Your Fact to a Dec. 12, 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guardian\/status\/1204891107374460929\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a> from the company\u2019s Twitter account that included an image of a real front page from the print edition newspaper.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Guardian front page, Thursday 12 December 2019: Corbyn urges voters to deliver \u2018shock to the establishment\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dCyYOd2nTv\">pic.twitter.com\/dCyYOd2nTv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Guardian (@guardian) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guardian\/status\/1204891107374460929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whoever created the altered image shared on Facebook appears to have simply superimposed the alleged article about Spencer over a real article from that Dec. 12, 2019 edition of the newspaper titled, \u201cCorbyn urges voters to deliver \u2018shock to the establishment.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time The Guardian has been targeted by misinformation. Check Your Fact previously debunked claims that the newspaper published articles about <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/08\/16\/fact-check-apple-scanning-extremist-firearms-iphones\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple<\/a> scanning phones for \u201cextremist content\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2020\/06\/18\/fact-check-guardian-article-bbc-remove-george-orwell-statue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BBC<\/a> removing its George Orwell statue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows an article published by The Guardian about Michael Spencer, a member of the U.K.\u2019s House of Lords, funding a Congolese militia.Verdict: False The &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}